Arts Days:October 21, 1959: The Wright Man for the Job
When Solomon Guggenheim’s personal advisor approached architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design a building to house Guggenheim’s art collection, he told Wright, “I need a fighter, a lover of space, an originator, a tester, and a wise man.” Wright was indeed the right man. It took 16 years to complete, but the result is one of New York’s signature buildings, an edifice as iconoclastic as the art it contains.

Wright rejected buildings’ traditional cubical shape; instead, he chose to mimic smooth, round forms of nature. The interior is no less revolutionary. Visitors ride elevators to the top floor, and from there descend a sloping ramp that lets viewers experience the artwork as one continuous series.
Architecture, Visual Arts, Innovators & Pioneers, Art Venues

Arts Days:October 23, 2001: Music for the iGeneration
Sleek and slim, with a clean white interface and dial that let users spin through hundreds, even thousands of songs on a whim, the iPod’s arrival heralded a huge shakeup in music—how it was played and how it was made. Not only did portable CD players suddenly seem impossibly clunky, but the tiny gadget-y iPod made it possible to also carry videos, photos, and other types of media in your pocket.

Apple's latest invention revolutionized the portable music player, and what’s more, opened the gates to a whole new music industry to meet demands for digital music downloads. Both record companies and artists had to figure out how to market music for the new digital age. Since the first iPod model debuted on this day in 2001, Apple is the leading seller of MP3 players, as well as digital music, which it sells through its iTunes store.
Inventions, Innovators & Pioneers, Music, Popular Culture

Arts Days:October 18, 1926: The Father of Rock and Roll
There’s good reason why Chuck Berry was the very first inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Berry not only defined the rock and roll sound, he created it. His 1955 song “Maybellene” was, in many ways, the first song of this musical genre, and its debut proved a pivotal moment in music history. Like many of his contemporaries, Berry began by playing the blues.

But audiences responded most enthusiastically when he played what was at the time considered “hillbilly” music: the rollicking infectious rhythms born of bluegrass. Berry added his own twists, like electrifying guitar playing, clever wordplay, and, above all, a vitality that made his audiences want to get up and dance. The resulting music was irresistible to young people and caught on like wildfire.
Composers, Music Legends, Blues, Music, Rock & Roll, Innovators & Pioneers

Arts Days:October 19, 1985: Movies Come Home
Cold out? Feeling lazy? Or is a trip to the movie theater simply too costly? The Blockbuster video-rental chain solved these problems for movie lovers when it opened the doors to its first store on this day in 1985. All of a sudden, instead of going out to a theater and paying for tickets and popcorn, you could spend a lot less money and watch movies from the comfort of your home, even dressed in your jammies.

All you had to do was visit your neighborhood Blockbuster, browse through hundreds of movie titles, and pick out which films to bring home. You could find everything from obscure documentaries to first-run hits. Blockbuster stores were an instant success and started popping up everywhere. The chain launched a whole new market for the film industry and changed the rules of movie-watching forever.
Innovators & Pioneers, Movies & Movie Stars, Television, Art Venues

Arts Days:October 26, 1911: An Amazing Grace
Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson had a powerful contralto voice even as a little girl. She would sing around the house, sing at the Plymouth Rock Baptist Church in her hometown, and sing in various choirs or as a soloist. She landed a series of recording deals, starting in 1937 with Decca Records, eventually moving to Columbia Records, where she really hit her stride as a spiritual singer with broad commercial appeal.

Jackson’s appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show brought gospel to a whole new set of listeners, as did her performance at the inauguration of President Kennedy in 1960. This granddaughter of slaves was the first gospel singer to sing at Carnegie Hall, and the first gospel singer to be featured at the Newport Jazz Festival.
Innovators & Pioneers, Music Legends, Music, Blues

Arts Days:October 27, 1923: Pop Goes the Easel
Roy Lichtenstein challenged many conventions about what constituted art. As a pop artist painting, stenciling, and drawing images inspired by advertisements and comics, then reproducing them closely but not exactly, he found worldwide fame as well as notoriety. Some critics claimed he was merely copying the work of others.

But Lichtenstein believed that his intent—to comment on how the mass media treated the same subjects he painted—separated him from the artists who created the original images. Lichtenstein was among those who experimented with Ben-Day, a printing process that combines two or more different small, colored dots to create a third color.
Cartoons, Comics, & Animation, Innovators & Pioneers, Visual Arts, America

Arts Days:October 16, 1888: The Playwright Cometh
Among the greatest of American playwrights, Eugene O’Neill had theater bred right into him. His father was a touring actor, so O’Neill and his family accompanied him everywhere. It made for a transient life, but one that fed the young writer’s creativity.

His plays are detailed, realistic portrayals of the complex and difficult relationships among everyday people. O’Neill was also an innovator: He introduced the concept of realism to American audiences, explored simultaneous action on stage, and employed “the aside,” a dramatic technique that allows characters to reveal their true thoughts directly to the audience.

Through his work, he hoped to challenge theatergoers to reflect on their own families, relationships, and conflicts. Among his classic plays are Mourning Becomes Electra, The Iceman Cometh, and Long Day’s Journey Into Night.Broadway, Theater, Playwrights & Plays, Innovators & Pioneers

Arts Days:October 01, 1982: A Shiny New Music Maker
At $900, the first home CD player had a pretty steep price tag. Still, the sound quality of music on Compact Disc (CD for short) was far superior to that of the cassettes and LPs that had dominated consumers’ stereo systems for years.

CDs hold more minutes of music than any record ever did, and store music in digital format, which helps create that crystal-clear sound quality. They are also relatively hard to scratch or damage, unlike tapes and records. It wasn’t long before the CD player became a must-have stereo component for any serious music buff. Oh, by the way, the first album to be released on CD was Billy Joel's 52nd Street.
Inventions, Innovators & Pioneers, Music, Japan, Popular Culture

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